Brown opts to leave Easter Gift home

Horse wasn't assured spot in Dirt Mile; needed an entrant to scratch

By Tim Wilkin

Updated 6:36 am, Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Arcadia, Calif.

The horse trainer Chad Brown may have liked most of all won't be running in the Breeders' Cup.

Easter Gift, one of the 11 horses Brown pre-entered, did not make the trip to California from New York. Easter Gift was on the list of also eligibles for the Dirt Mile, meaning a horse would have to defect from the race in order to make room for Brown.

"Anything could happen, but it was unlikely he was going to get in," Brown said on the Santa Anita backstretch Tuesday morning. "To ship him all the way out here and not run would be disruptive to his training."

Brown said he was not wild about Easter Gift having to run from the far outside post in the race if he had gotten into the race.

"I loved the way he was training," Brown said. "I think the (Breeders' Cup) panel made a mistake. The horse doesn't have any graded credentials, but he does have speed figures that make him belong in the field."

Brown also said that Easter Gift did have all year to do something that would have gotten him a slot in the field. Easter Gift, who has three wins and two thirds in six starts, could run next in the two-turn Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs in late November.

---

D. Wayne Lukas still thinks that Strong Mandate, who won the Hopeful at Saratoga, can win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. But he got no help when the colt was saddled with the 14 post — the farthest outside you can get — in the 11/16 mile race.

"It's not good," Lukas said Tuesday morning. "I think it compromises our chances to win quite a bit. I still have a tremendous amount of confidence in the horse and I think he is very special. He can still win, but he has a lot to overcome."

Strong Mandate, who was seventh, beaten 10 lengths in the Grade I Champagne at Belmont, will have a new rider in Joel Rosario. He replaces Jose Ortiz, who rode the colt in his last three starts. Lukas, though was not happy with the Champagne ride.

"The reason he didn't run well in the Champagne was because of the guy on his back," Lukas said. "The plus in the equation is Rosario. He knows this course, and I am counting on him to overcome the negativity."

Havana, who won the Champagne for trainer Todd Pletcher, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the Juvenile. But he will start right next to Strong Mandate (6-1) in the 13 hole.